A new academy the East Midlands is steadily improving its performance and has worked with us to develop a coaching model that will drive up standards and focus on ensuring that the school moves from an overall OFSTED grade of satisfactory to good and then in time become an outstanding school. Their new status as an academy has meant that they have embedded a lot of new systems and as part of this they have appointed new staff. We worked closely with the senior management team and faculty leaders to focus on performance management and how a coaching model can lead to co-ownership of the process of lesson observation where the outcome is positive feedback and a two way professional dialogue.
Our agenda for the training included:
- Examining successful learning and teaching
- Promoting a critical approach to the analysis of practice – exploring pedagogy, progression and reflection
- Learning to listen
- Coaching towards outstanding practice
The opportunity for this team of managers to work together to develop a performance management system that allows for deep reflection, the sharing of good practice and constructively critical appraisal has now been put in place and will continue to develop through the next academic year. Already there is a feeling that the coaching model is genuinely leading individuals to change their teaching practice, try different approaches and develop strategies that allow them to innovate and take measured risks where the learner takes control of their learning and progression is assured.
